Liberation biology.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Molecular biologist Lee M. Silver - Interview

Scientist Lee M. Silver on cloning wars, bioethical battles, and new and improved genes.

Molecular biologist Lee M. Silver is a happy - and increasingly prominent - warrior in the ongoing battles against bio-Luddites on both the left and the right. His thought-provoking 1997 book, Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (Avon Books), thrillingly explores how cloning, combined with other fast-developing biotechnologies, will soon revolutionize medicine and human reproduction.

Born in 1952, Silver started out as a physics major at the University of Pennsylvania. As a senior, he concluded that "even though I loved studying relativity and cosmology, I was never going to be able to go beyond what had been done by Einstein and others." After an all-night discussion with a friend who was a biology major, Silver changed course. "He told me about DNA and RNA and proteins and all about molecular biology," recalls Silver. "And I said, 'This is great. This is what I want to do.'" He got his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard and went on to a post-doctoral fellowship at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering Institute to learn about the biology and genetics of mice. Then came four years as an independent investigator at Long Island's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which is run by Nobelist James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the double helix structure of DNA.

Arriving at Princeton University in 1984 as a professor in the Departments of Molecular Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Program in Neuroscience, Silver has recently shifted his focus to behavioral genetics. "To my mind," he says, "we basically understand pretty much everything about the basic principles of biology except for how the mind works." Silver is now studying how genes affect behaviors such as alcoholism, aggression, sexuality, and curiosity in mice. He points out that "almost every single gene present in mice is also present in humans. So if you find a gene in mice that clearly affects what psychologists call novelty seeking, you can go see if it does the same thing in humans."

When Silver is asked if he thinks he may be afflicted with the novelty-seeking gene, he replies with a laugh: "I am definitely afflicted with novelty seeking. Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't stay still - I will jump from one thing to the next."

Silver's tendency to jump from one thing to the next is not a quality appreciated by some of his scientific colleagues. "There is a conflict going on between the faculty in my department and me," he admits. "My literary agent says I have been Saganized because I am popularizing science," he says, referring to the late planetary scientist and public television star Carl Sagan. "I think [my co-workers] are sort of angry at me for spending time with something that they think is not worth spending time on, which is going out in the world and talking, as opposed to sitting at the bench doing science." One result of his going out in the world: Later this year, Silver will become a half-time professor at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey interviewed Silver in his office in February.

Reason: What do you think is the most exciting development in biotechnology?

Lee M. Silver: The most exciting development is that we now have genetic descriptions of lots of organisms, including humans. We are going to have a whole catalog of all human genes very soon. It has already been done for some 15 different microorganisms, and it is going to be done for lots of different animals useful to biotechnology research. This is going to provide a phenomenal database that is going to allow pharmaceutical companies to be able to develop a new field, "pharmaco-genetics." Pharmaco-genetics will use genetics as a way to distinguish subsets of disease so that we can tailor cures based on the particular genes that individual patients carry. The problem that drug companies have right now is that they have therapies that work in some people and not in others. Researchers are all convinced that the difference in effectiveness is a genetic difference.

Biotech is also going to revolutionize agriculture and energy production - in 100 years, it will be possible to create oil. We are going to create microorganisms that will make long-chain hydrocarbons. We will have huge power over simple living systems, and even complex systems like animals. We will be able to create any substance we want using microorganisms or animals. Once you have genetically engineered an animal, you have essentially created a biodegradable factory. Even its wastes are biodegradable. It's a reproducing factory. Startup costs are huge, but upkeep costs are very, very cheap. That is the future of biotechnology.

I bet that in 50 years, all the old factories for making drugs will be shut down and all drugs will be made in cow's milk. You will have a herd of cows making human insulin, human growth hormone, etc. Each herd of genetically engineered cows will make a particular drug in their milk. Consequently, the price per therapy will drop some 100-fold. After all, what does a gallon of milk cost - $27 A genetically engineered cow will produce an amount of drug in each gallon which costs thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to produce today. So competition kicks in, and all drugs come down in price. I think that is going to begin to happen in 10 years.

Reason: Biologists at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin supported by the biotech company Geron recently announced that they had isolated and were now growing human stem cells from embryos and fetal tissue. Stem cells are the precursor cells that are capable of being turned into any tissue. Where do you see this technology going?

Silver: Stem cells are very, exciting, and, again, I think that we will also be seeing some of the benefits of stem cells in 10 years. Creating bone marrow is one of the easier things to do with stem cells, but I don't think we are going to be able to create whole organs from stem cells in 10 years. However, one of the things I think we will be able to do over a much longer period is to create animals that have been engineered so that their organs can be used for transplantation into humans without being rejected.

Reason: Last year we heard reports from Korean researchers that they had cloned a human embryo as part of stem-cell research. What do you think was...